Quinte West’s Corporate Finance Committee is recommending a change in the way the city invests money not immediately needed, in an effort to receive higher returns on its investment.
The committee is recommending joining eight other municipalities in the ONE Joint Investment Board (JIB) which invests prudently but not ultra-conservatively.
In 2019 the province changed regulations on investing funds that are not needed within the next 24 months.
ONE JIB handles investments for municipalities and invests them with long term capital gains in mind.
The City of Quinte West currently has approximately $60 million in reserve money and the staff report projects that, if approved by council, the municipality would invest approximately $33.5 million of the reserve money with ONE JIB.
The investment would be made with a targeted annual return of 3.8% and 60% of the money would be invested in low risk investments.
Councillor Allan DeWitt said he’s been investing for 30 years and that he feels it would be a good move for the municipality.
“It’s good to be optimistic and I’m optimistic too but long term investing does have ebb and flow. I’ve been an investor for 30 years. I think we all have to remember why we’re doing this and it’s for a long term improvement. I know there’s some pretty low, low, return safe investments out there to the point of you’re actually losing ground. I look forward to this and hopefully I’m around long enough to see fruition for our efforts here tonight.”
The target date for officially beginning the process with ONE JIB is January of 2022.
The committee voted in favour of the recommendation and it will now move forward to council at a future meeting.
To see the full staff report click here.
